WELCOME TO THE
VISUAL RESOURCES CENTER

About Us

The Visual Resources Center is a University-wide resource housed and administered by the Art History Department. The Center’s Cumulus database consists of 41,500 digital images available for download for PowerPoint presentations. In addition, the Center houses over 500,000 35mm slides of art historical images. Images are those used for teaching in the Art History Department and are largely correlated to the curriculum. In addition, there is a large core collection of architecture, sculpture, painting, Greek and Roman art and architecture, Asian, and African art, as well as contemporary art.

There are a number of art-related Videos and DVDs available which are placed on reserve for viewing in the Center. Access to the Visual Resources Center is limited to the Boston University community.

Digital

A scanning setup is available to make digital images from slides or books for your PowerPoint presentations. There are slide scanners and flatbed scanners. Please bring your own CD or USB flash drive. As for slide projectors, professors must make arrangements for LCD projectors. Two weeks notice is required. We will assist you in getting started with scanning if you need help. Both Macs and PCs are available.

Circulation

Though the collection is accessible to all members of the Boston University community, slides may be used only for University classes and lectures, and faculty in the Art History Department will have precedence in the use of the slides. Slides may be pulled and put on reserve for up to a week before the class or lecture and must be returned immediately after the class presentation. Since the collection is arranged by country and artist, rather than subject matter, it is necessary to have as much information as possible about the works for which you will be searching. Please allow yourself enough time the first time you are using the collection to orient yourself to our system.

All art and art history books are located in the Mugar Memorial Library. The Visual Resources Center holds a limited number of art reference books only.

Students must make arrangements with professors for projectors iff there is not a projection booth in the classroom. This includes slide projectors and/or LCD projectors. We do not handle non-departmentall requests for projectors; all such requests must go through Media Services by the professor teaching the course.

Reproduction and Duplication

Due to copyright restrictions, reproduction or duplication of any of the images in the Boston University Visual Resources Center collection is strictly prohibited. The images may be used for classroom and study purposes only. Scholarly publication or use on public access web sites is not permitted.

The Visual Resources Center is responsible for the creation and maintenance of course web sites for the Art History Department. For copyright protection, all such web sites are fire walled for students and members of the Boston University community only.

Hours: Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Closed on the weekends.